U.S. 2010 budgetHighlights of the U.S. 2010 defense budget

The U.S. Department of Defense has submitted its FY 2010 budget request for $533.8 billion. Highlights:

• This is 4 percent more than the FY 2009 base budget, but this is no longer an apples-to-apples comparison, as explained below.
• Weapons procurement represents $107.4 billion, or about 20 percent of the total budget.
• That put it in third place, behind Operations & Maintenance ($185.7 billion), and personnel costs ($136 billion).

DID notes that, so far, the president’s budget request generally matches Secretary Gates’ April 2009 preview.

-For more information on the 2010 defense budget, see:

• Pentagon DefenseLINK (7 May 2009) — DoD Releases Fiscal 2010 Budget Proposal. Includes links.
• U.S. DoD Comptroller’s Office — Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request. Includes detailed documents, and an Excel sheets for some items.
• DID (6 April 2006) — Gates Lays Out Key FY 2010 Budget Recommendations. Has been updated since, but its broad outlines and specifics are reflected in the president’s budget request.
• CG Blog (8 May 2009) — DHS FY10 Budget Request is out; USCG’s getting thinner by about $20 million, from $9.975 billion to $9.955 billion.
• CSBA (7 May 2009) — Budget Request Begins Shift Toward a More “Balanced” Defense Posture: Press release [PDF] | Full Briefing [PDF]. The think tank compares this year’s budget request to the previous budget and provides more detailed analysis of significant changes.
• Lexington Institute (7 May 2009) — Quadrennial Review Skirts Biggest Management Challenge. ”…the process is ignoring the biggest single management challenge that Gates and his successors will face. That problem, bluntly stated, is that the All Volunteer Force is becoming unaffordable. Military personnel costs are out of control…”
• Lexington Institute (5 May 2009) — Defense Market Drivers and Trends Through 2012